SPAMALOT!

Roxie Hildebrand
Period 3
February 10, 2014
Extra credit # 1 for quarter 3

"Spamalot" was a play that the JDHS theater department put on at the end of January. I was able to see the show the Saturday night after opening.  "Spamalot" is not my favorite show, but not because of the actors or the direction or anything that could have been controlled.  The Monty Python humor is just not something I find funny.  So instead of focusing on the music and the script, I am going to talk about the quality of the production.  

This is the first musical I've seen at JDHS in years because I normally am in all the productions.  It was really nice to be on the other side for once.  I really did enjoy the show.  "Spamalot" was great because of the great actors, the wonderful set, and the creative choreography.

The actors in the show were honestly better than I thought they would be.  I have a lot of friends in the show who would say that so-and-so wasn't prepared or that the show "isn't ready for opening."  They were just being their worst critics though.  It was nice that we had actors from all of the schools. The lead, Jacob, was from the alternative high school. I thought he did a wonderful job. I was expecting this show to be shakey, but it ran very smoothly.  That is, with the exception of Sam dropping the f-bomb in the middle of the first scene. 

The set was absolutely amazing.  The department has really had to limit set due to the low budget in previous years. "Spamalot" was the exception. The set designer and auditorium manager, Bo, had a lot of fun creating the stage pieces and it really showed. The coolest part was that most of the larger pieces were set for different scenes on either side. So during the blackout all they had to do was turn the piece around. It was colorful and exciting, which was really nice compared to the plain black boxes we used to use for set. 

Another thing that stood out to me was the choreography. Sometimes Mrs. Moore choreographs the show, but lately we had been using professionals. I was scared to see how Mrs. Moore's work would look next to previous choreographers. I was surprised to see how wonderful it really was. She didn't use any of the dance moves she normally uses. I know she had a really hard time with the tap dancing, but everyone picked it up and had a lot of fun with it. Mrs. Moore did a great job of choreographing the show. 

"Spamalot" was one of the most elaborate shows jdhs has put on in a very long time. I'm very proud of the cast and the hard work they put in. One of the most important things in a show is seeing that the actors enjoy what they are doing on stage. "Spamalot" was a well practiced and wonderful show.